CIM Training Week 3, Day 1: REST!

That's right, rest. Technically, it was supposed to be a cross training day, but given how sore I was after the weekend I declared it a rest day. I made my plan, I can alter it, right? Pray I do not alter it any further.

Since it was a rest day with no workouts, it gives me a chance to mention a few things I've tried out recently that seem to be working pretty well.

The first is protein powder. I've used protein powder for a few years now post-workout, and had settled on GNC's products. I tried all the flavors they make, and had finally settled on either Banana Creme or Caramel. It's not that those tasted good, it's more than they didn't taste as bad as the others!

Walmart sells a brand called Body Fortress, but I've been reluctant to try it because you can only get it in big giant tubs. Why spend money on a tub when there's a chance I won't like it? Then yesterday, they had these:



They call it a Protein Shot, charging about $1.50 a vial. A vial contains 3 ounces, and what's interesting here is that a normal protein shake is 8 ounces. The vial has more protein, less sugar, and the same BCAA as the stuff from GNC, with one important difference: it tastes great! It tasted like fruit punch, the only odd thing was that it has the thickness and consistency of a protein shake. That's really the only downside I can see. No mixing, no lumps, and you can shove it into your workout bag. I think I'll be buying more.

Next is a new app I bought for the Pre. A little bit of background here, on the Treo 755p I used a program that I'd been using for years and years, going all the way back to the Palm III, called BalanceLog. Originally it was called WeightLog with a separate program called DietLog, but the company who made it, Health eTech, finally merged the two. The Palm product cost $30 and so did the PC product, but you could buy a bundle for $50 that included both.

Originally I used DietLog because it incorporated Weight Watcher points, but when they lost whatever contract the two had made, they removed the points and went strictly calories. After struggling for a long time, they finally sold their assets to another company, who promptly discontinued the product. I actually used the darn thing for about 4 years after the company went away. My logs go all the way back to 2003, so that software documents my weight loss from the very beginning. I wish I had some of the logs from the WW days, that's for sure!

At any rate, the PC version only worked with XP. They wrote it poorly and as a result, it didn't run on Vista. The Palm version was the only thing that made me consider buying the Classic app for the Pre, but it wouldn't run in the emulator! I haven't been able to log my food with anything but a web-based logger since moving to the Pre. Web-based apps, while working, can be slow, and then there's the issue of them ceasing to work when there's no internet access.

So I haven't logged my food since getting the Pre in May. Food logging is a bit more difficult without being able to use my Pre, so I ended up not doing it at all. Obviously I've slipped up in my eating. Slipped up, that is, until this weekend.

Absolute Fitness was only $4.99, and provides about 90% the functionality I had with BalanceLog. It tracks my everything: my weight, my food intake (and all the nutritional info), my workouts, calories burned... body information such as body fat, weight lost. It doesn't do RHR, but I can put that into the memo of each day.



You can enter custom food, search for food in its database, which they claim has about 100,000 entries. This includes the nutritional information, and unlike online databases, searches are fast.



It tracks exercise, how many calories are burned during that exercise, and lets you put in custom exercises as well.



When it's all done, every piece of information you've entered that changes over time can be charted in a nice visual graph.





Finally, and this is a function that I didn't have with BalanceLog (even with the PC software): data can be exported into either HTML or .CSV into an email, which can be sent to wherever you like. Once in CSV format you can open it into a spreadsheet.

All in all, this was the best $5 I've spent in a while. $5 to improve my health and continue what I started so long ago. I'm happy today!